Sunday, March 16, 2008

My sister and brother-in-law live in Cabbagetown and were lucky this past weekend not to have had any significant damage to their home from the storms. It was definitely a scary experience for them but they came through it pretty much unscathed. Their neighbors, however, were not so lucky. The area had some pretty substantial damage and it was heartbreaking to hear stories of what happened to the historic homes there.

There was, however, one story that was just too ironic not to share. A neighbor of my sister lived next to an empty lot. It seems she is the self-appointed neighborhood watch of the street and all-around Cabbagetown busybody. The empty lot next to her had several trees on it. And apparently one 300 year old tree. Unfortunately, the man who purchased the lot to build on it didn't realize the "historic" nature of the tree. But, when he tried to cut it down to build his home she promptly took him to court and sued to have the tree preserved as a "historic" tree thus making his property worthless and effectively making it impossible to build on that lot. Then this weekend during the storm, that very tree fell on her house and smashed her roof. Thankfully, she was okay and her house was actually fairly undamaged which she attributes to the tree's thankfulness to her for saving it(hmmm, really?). But, the story was too irresistible not to share...